THE PAHIATUA ELECTION

Evening Star, Issue 16197, 19 August 1916, Page 9

THE PAHIATUA ELECTION

[Special to the ' Star.']

WELLINGTON,, August 19.

The National Government are inimmie from some of the anxieties that beset' an ordinary Ministry, and the by-election at Pahiatua cannot be said, to have attracted very much attention at any stage, but the result certainly is not what members of the Ministry expected. They predicted quite openly that the official candidate, bearing the endorsement of both Mr Massey and 1 Sir Joseph Ward, was going to win easily, whereas the fact is that he failed to secure a majority of the votes polled, and gained the seat by a narrow majority only, because there were two other candidates in the field. Reports from the electorate show plainly enough that the National Government failed to inspire enthusiasm in Pahiatua. If the conduct of the war hr-d been the issue Mr Smith would have had matters all his own way, since the electors would have regarded loyalty to the National Administration as their first duty; but the continued existence of the Government during the war period was taken for granted, and the electors were thinking of such matters as the Cost of Living and the handling of domestic affairs.